Now that Tarkir: Dragonstorm is all said and done, MTG players can finally turn their heads to the future. Very soon, ish, on May 10th, Wizards of the Coast will finally be showing off the Final Fantasy set in earnest. Already, Hasbro has claimed this is the best-selling set of all time, so it’s safe to say MTG players are excited.
While we’re still a ways away from the set’s grand reveal, we’ve already seen a fair few Final Fantasy spoilers. Unsurprisingly, the four face Commanders that we’ve seen have been generating a lot of interest since they were first spoiled. Two months on from their first reveal, we’re now seeing this band of legends cause yet another impressive price spike.
Helm of the Ghastlord
First released in Shadowmoor, just under 17 years ago, Helm of the Ghastlord has taken its sweet time getting noticed. Since its release, this card has never been very good. At best, you’ll be spending four mana for a +2/+2 buff and two abilities that activate upon dealing damage. While this could do decent work, you’ll only get all this when attached to a Dimir creature.
Due to this strength, or rather lack thereof, Helm of the Ghastlord hasn’t seen much, if any, competitive play. Even in Commander, this card is a bit of a dud; however, having multiple opponents does open up more options. Alongside a Commander like Nekusar, the Mindrazer, you can revoke some of that extra card draw given to opponents while you continue to pull ahead.
While Helm of the Ghastlord is playable in Commander, it’s still not a very popular card. According to EDHREC, there are fewer than 2000 Nekusar decks running Ghastlord. Curiously, the second most popular Commander to run this card with hasn’t even been released yet. As alluded to in our intro spiel, Ghastlord is fantastic with a Final Fantasy Commander.
In particular, Helm of the Ghastlord works wonders alongside Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed. Even this card’s downsides are turned into upsides when you’ve got Y’shtola on the field. That high mana cost, for instance, becomes a source of life drain, which gets you closer to her card draw ability.
The buff provided by Helm of the Ghastlord does the same thing. So long as you slap it on a Dimir creature with two toughness, you’ll have enough to trigger Y’shtola’s draw. On top of that, you’ll also get Helm of the Ghastlord’s card draw and discard, which seems like a pretty sweet deal.
The Spike
Thanks to this synergy, which has been on our radar for quite some time, there have been a lot of eyes on Helm of the Ghastlord. Following Y’shtola’s reveal, plenty of copies were quickly snapped up, leading to a slight price spike. Now, following another wave of demand, supply has almost been entirely stripped, leading to a massive price spike.
Prior to Y’shtola’s reveal, Helm of the Ghastlord was well and truly draft chaff, selling for around $0.25. As you can see on the tail end of the graph above, it was rare for a copy of this card to sell every couple of days. Once Y’shtola was unveiled, however, there was an immediate jump in price up to $0.40!
Obviously, this isn’t the biggest price spike in the history of MTG, however, things haven’t stopped there. In the following weeks, the price of Ghastlord continued to climb before plateauing around $1.11. Now, in the past couple of days, the price of Helm of the Ghastlord has shot up once again, as copies are now selling for $9.99.
As mentioned, this immense price spike has been caused by a lack of supply, especially for near-mint copies. Currently, on TCGplayer, there are only eight listings for Ghastlord in this condition. Unsurprisingly, since Ghastlord is nearly 17 years old, there aren’t many of these copies to go around.
This isn’t unusual for cards from the original Lorwyn block. Those sets are known for being relatively shortprinted, even in the time it was released.
The Future
Like many Commander-based price spikes, investing in Helm of the Ghastlord seems rather risky. Not only has the ship definitely sailed since we’re now post-spike, but there’s a massive asterisk looming over Ghastlord. Technically, there’s a non-zero chance that Helm of the Ghastlord could be reprinted in the Y’shtola Commander deck.
Right now, since we can’t predict the future, there’s no way to tell if this potential reprint is going to happen. It’d certainly be a weird throwback if Wizards goes down this route, especially if it gets new Final Fantasy-themed art. Nonetheless, the synergy is obviously there, so Wizards might decide this reprint fits quite nicely.
Should Helm of the Ghastlord be reprinted within the Scions & Spellcraft deck, Helm of the Ghastlord will crash hard. There’s no reason to buy this card as an upgrade when it’s already included within the deck, after all. With this in mind, Ghastlord could be a rather risky spec, although any potential reprint is entirely unconfirmed.
Outside of hypothetical reprint shenanigans, Helm of the Ghastlord is unlikely to stay expensive for too long. Like most Commander-based price spikes, interests will shift and change over time as new Commanders come along. While the Final Fantasy Commanders are likely to have more staying power than usual, interest will fall off eventually, nonetheless.
As always, while we can look toward trends and potential patterns, there’s no telling what the future actually holds. We won’t know what’s in the Scions & Spellcraft deck until it’s actually revealed. When that finally happens, Ghastlord could see another price bump, or it might crash out entirely. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.